


Eternal Vigilance

by skyekingsleigh



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, cedmione
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-27
Updated: 2017-07-27
Packaged: 2018-11-22 09:32:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11377428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skyekingsleigh/pseuds/skyekingsleigh
Summary: "What is it that he said? I reckon it's along the lines of 'constant vigilance' was it?"Cedric scoffed, dusting off his shoulders and leaning against the antique cabinet they had been cleaning in the attic of the headquarters. "Eternal vigilance more like, Granger."





	Eternal Vigilance

**Author's Note:**

> if you read my harmony or harmione whatever one-shot, you'd know (well, if you read my note that is) that cedmione is actually my main ship and i know i'm weird but tHE POTENTIAL OK

chapter one

-

When both Cedric and Harry touched the Tri-wizard cup and everything became a whirlwind of hair and red and yellow (the colors of both their houses), it didn’t take long for Cedric to figure out that the cup was a port key. He spent too much of his childhood practicing how to properly travel through one anyway, his father always pressuring him to do well in every aspect of everything. Amos Diggory had been so proud that his only son landed on his two feet the first time he went through a port key that he made sure Cedric didn’t have any room for unjust landings. With that in mind, he and Harry stumbled in what definitely is considered an _unjust_ landing. 

At first, he had been embarrassed and didn’t want to look up from his lying position to see the frown that would unquestionably take place upon his father’s lips the second he sees him. But still he had been thankful that Dumbledore was thoughtful enough to make the cup what it is; Cedric wasn’t sure he’d be able to take it if he was to go back out the maze again with the cup. But then Harry started screaming his bloody lungs out, curling up on the floor with both hands in his forehead. It was then that Cedric realized that there had been something–or things, really–missing. There were no cheers from the crowd anxiously waiting outside the maze, there was no celebratory music, for both Hogwarts champions won the tournament; there had been only silence save for the screaming Harry was doing. 

On instinct he held up his wand, eyes frantically searching for the cup that would take him and the fourteen-year-old champion back to safety. He briefly thought if this was part of the tournament but immediately dismissed the idea. If it was, they would have been informed before the task. Besides, what would they do in a graveyard anyway, battle with zombies? Right. This thought process lead to a new, more dangerous and utterly terrifying realization: this isn’t part of the task therefore whoever put Harry’s name on the goblet of fire was somehow behind this and he could definitely maybe bloody die. 

“Harry,” he hissed. “Harry, get up!” he nudged the boy with his foot, wand still up in defense of anyone or anything that might come their way. Somehow he heard Alastor Moody exclaim in the back of his head: _Constant Vigilance!_ He blinked rapidly to rid the voice. “We need to get back to the cup,”

“Cedric!” he screamed, still on a fetal position in the dirt-covered ground. “Go, run! Get back without me! Get help! Tell Dumbledore! Cedric–“

He was barely listening, too focused on the moving shadow approaching them. “Harry…” he trailed off, gulping as a rat-like faced man was revealed from the shadow it once had been. 

He was short, a good feet shorter than Cedric in fact. Without magic, he was sure he could take him. But somehow this man was scary in his own way, with an evil glint in his eye paired with a more evil smile. Cedric kept an eye on him closely, torn between running for his life towards the cup and saving Harry Potter. Deep inside he knew that the most logical thing to do was to run; he wasn’t part of the original plan anyways. 

It wasn’t planned for both Potter and him to win together. It always should have been just Potter, he knew that. But he made it. Somehow he made it to the end of the tournament and, if not for this, brought well-deserved praise back to his house, Hufflepuff, again. Cedric took notice of the thing the man was cradling in his arms. A baby? But it spoke with a man’s voice; so shrilling he could feel the hairs all over his body stand. Suddenly eternal glory didn’t seem so eternal anymore. 

“Harry!” he almost shouted this time, nearly bouncing to his feet. The boy hurriedly shushed him before taking out a what-seemed-to-be cloak out from his pocket. Merlin’s beard, how did that fit inside? 

“Ced, take this,” he whispered, eyeing who he knew was Peter Pettigrew who was too indulged by his conversation with the dark lord to notice the other champion who wasn’t supposed to be there. “Put it over your body and wait by the cup, you got me?”

“What,” Cedric breathed out, thoroughly confused by the whole situation going on. “How is this supposed to–“

“Just trust me!”

And trust he did. He ran, all the way to the other side of the graveyard, towards the cup glistening under the complete darkness in the god-forsaken graveyard they were in. He pulled the cloak over his body, just like what Harry said, and with every step he took his conscience barked at him: _Coward! Coward! Coward!_ Like he didn’t already know. But still, his logic had been stronger and he started to think of a plan that would take Harry and him back to Hogwarts with the least damage. He couldn’t possibly take the cup to Harry, he would only teleport himself back and leave the Gryffindor behind. Merlin, he was running out of ideas and panic was starting to rise in him. He knew very well that tonight wasn’t the best night to have a mental block and a potential panic attack. 

It wasn’t until you-know-who, who turned out to be the ‘baby’ he saw in the man’s arms earlier, had risen again and several death eaters appeared that he truly felt that he had to come up with something and quick. Harry, the poor lad, had been facing all this alone and with a new bleeding scar on his arm, too. He admittedly admired and commended the boy for his astounding bravery; one only a true Gryffindor could possibly possess. 

He watched every thing happen under the cloak that hid him from hindsight, often wincing, flinching and sometimes even jumping at the fight that broke off in front of his own eyes. He saw the _priori incantatem_ , and had to stop his jaw from dropping and swallowed a lump in his throat. This was it: his moment to prove himself worthy as a Hogwarts champion, prefect and also a friend to the bloke running for his life with no direction in mind. With lips pursed in determination, he shrugged off Potter’s invisibility cloak and held his wand up. 

“Harry, right here!” he yelled with all his might and stupefied and disarmed as many death eaters as he could. Everything became a blur and spells seemed to come out of his mouth on their own: _Stupefy! Expelliarmus! Petrificus Totalus!_

Harry was almost there, too, and for a second he thought that they would have a chance. They could escape from here and he had done something to help! Not quite a huge deal but still! Somehow between fighting off evil wizards he drifted away from the cup, but he was far filled with adrenaline that he took no notice of it. 

“Cedric, look out!”

_“Crucio!”_

A stark light hitting him directly on his chest met him, seeing none other than Luscius Malfoy’s smirk as he staggered backwards and bellowed in pain. He felt like his whole body was on fire and his limbs were torn from him. He struggled to breathe; every move he so much as make bringing agony. Even the drip of his sweat on his forehead hurt. He vaguely remembered Harry’s body crashing against his as he dived for the older boy, and his voice shouting “ _Accio_ cup!” 

With his head rolled back, Cedric Diggory lost all consciousness. 

-

He didn’t wake up for days, but when he did, he woke up gasping. It felt like he was drowning somehow, and all the muscles in his body ached. His eyesight had to adjust from the brightness that met him, making him temporarily blind for at least ten seconds. The distant murmurs of the busy infirmary didn’t miss his ears, confirming his guess by Madam Pomfrey’s voice shouting in the background. Cedric had spent three weeks of his third year helping out in the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts and was really familiar with its day-to-day happenings. 

“Madam Pomfrey, he’s awake,” he recognized the voice but couldn’t quite put a name and a face to it. He’s heard it many times before, though, but honestly speaking he still wasn’t in his right mind to think right now. 

“Oh, great! Mr. Diggory, the headmaster has been wanting to speak with you but don’t yah worry, boy, I told him he couldn’t step foot here unless both you and Mr. Potter are absolutely okay and well-rested.” The old lass said, fixing the sheets that tucked his body in. His eyes drifted to the girl beside the healer, and immediately connected the voice to her. It was the brightest witch in all of Hogwarts, of course. Who else would it actually be? Hermione Granger stood silent behind Madam Pomfrey, clutching the curtains that separated his bed from the others in one hand. 

“May I ask what has happened?” his throat felt dry and his voice came out in a croak, and he discovered it also hurt to merely speak. But what else could he do? He was stuck lying in bed and the least they could provide him are answers to his list–a long one at that–of questions. 

“Well, the _Protego Horribilis_ spell that yah casted upon yourself surely did help yah recover from the _Cruciatus_ curse that yah received. Yah were unconscious for five days, too, and Merlin your parents were so worried! Mum couldn’t stop cryin’! Then, as I had told yah before, Professor Dumbledore had been eager to talk to yah, so I asked Ms. Granger here to use the _Rennervate_ spell to wake you up while I tended to Mr. Potter.”

“It was Malfoy,” he claimed, clenching his fists tightly. Both Hermione and Madam Pomfrey’s heads snapped back to him, the student curious and the healer, shocked. “Luscious Malfoy.”

“Now, Mr. Diggory, I don’t think it’s right to make such assumptions without proof–“

“I saw him!” He exclaimed and immediately Granger rushed to his side and harshly whispered.

“Cedric, calm down. I believe you, Harry told me everything. But wait for Professor Dumbledore. The smart thing to do is to tell him, and only him for now.”

He looked at the curly haired witch for a fraction of a moment, eyes lingering in the potions book clutched by her side and her disheveled clothes underneath her robes. Slowly, he felt himself calm down, only a few notches. He sighed heavily, as if very tired–which in truth, he really was– and casted his eyes elsewhere in space. 

“You don’t know everything, Granger.” He whispered, making Hermione look sharply at him with mixed emotions in her hazel orbs. “You know spells and books and complex vocabulary words and terms, but you don’t know exactly what happened, exactly how I felt that day. You know the gist from Harry, but actually being there, so close to your own death… you don’t know what that feels like.”

For the first time since she first stepped foot into Hogwarts Grounds, Hermione Granger was left mouth agape and speechless.


End file.
